Nine Months of Living Japanese: Long Live LandDog in the Far Reaches of Tokyo

Saturday, Feb 13, 2016

On Saturday, we went on a long journey—to the land of LandDog. I actually thought LandDog was a happy hippo until we got to the top of the hill and discovered otherwise. But let me back up.

We took three train lines—the Tozai, to the JR Yamanote, to the Keio line where we had to transfer to a fourth train—to get to this far away land. Our destination: Yomiuri Land. I had read about it in a couple of places—one of them being on Jonelle Patrick’s wonderful blog, Only in Japan. The Professor and I both love lighted stuff and according to everything I’d read, this was the place to go for amazing lights.

Since Sunday, was the last day and scheduled to rain we decided to go on Saturday. For once, thankfully, we didn’t wait until it was gone before deciding to do it.

We exited the train at the Yomiuriland exit and across the street we caught a gondola. Unless you are a glutton for punishment the 500yen round trip ticket is well worth it because the walk to get to this land of fun appears to be up the side of a mountain. Just saying.

The pictures start in the train station and continue until you get to the gondola and the pictures are of LandDog, but I thought he was a hippo until we got to the top and it all made sense. (Unfortunately, I did not take any photos to back this up.) He is on the brochure and all over the place. And why anyone would name their very cute mascot LandDog is beyond me. But if I get a dog ever, I want to name it LandDog for sentimental reasons. What a horribly awesome name for a dog.

Anyway, I’m not going to say much other than if you arrive at 4pm (or 3:50pm as it turns out) you only have to pay 1000 yen for admission only. If you think you’ll ride any ride, I’d pay for the ride ticket, which I think was 1800 yen. I wished we had done this because I’m sorry that we didn’t ride the roller coaster that looked awesome. It is something I will put up there on the shelf of life’s regrets, right next to wearing white shoes with dark hose (don’t judge)!